From: Derek Bell <dbell@maths.tcd.ie>
Subject: Re: (urth) Urth syllabus
Date: Sat, 25 Apr 1998 18:07:34 +0100


[Posted from URTH, a mailing list about Gene Wolfe's New Sun and other works]

In message <199804221644.JAA02069@lists1.best.com>, Dan Parmenter writes:
>Wolfe actually made less obvious use of the eiditic memory thing than
>Borges did in "Funes".  Borges seemed especially interested in the
>idea that his person with a perfect memory had absolutely no ability
>to make abstractions (he assigns names to individual numbers, etc.)

	I think the subject of A.R. Lurias' _Mind of a Mnemonist_ had
a simliar experience, though the example given was that of the
how he experience courthouses. (He was a journalist covering cases
and he had trouble thinking of a general courthouse though he easily
memorised individual courthouse layouts.)

	I'll suggest _Mind of a Mnemonist_ as a non-fiction book to
add to the hypothetical syllabus. I wouldn't be surprised if someone
nominates a book by Oliver Sacks!

	Derek

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